Just done a quick restoration on one of the "Lost Steptoe" episode; "A Winter's Tale", and thought some of you here might appreciate taking a look...

I'm sure it can be improved even further, as this was just a quick run through...

The clip I'm using came from one of my own off-air recordings, which I made directly to Super VHS at the time this episode was very first broadcast (after being discovered). So it's probably the best copy to work on for restoration purposes (as it was subsequently broadcast in a slightly cleaner state - which was still far from perfect). However, saying that, you will never have any of the "Lost Steptoe" episodes looking exactly as they would’ve originally, especially as they (basically) all have the colour missing...

The clip is dual screen; Before and After, so you can see what's been done. The file/mpg itself is DVD compliant, so can be copied off to a DVD without needing to be re-encoded (although you may not have the software currently on your system to do that…). However, whatever you do, to copy it to a DVD, don't deinterlace it, or the VidFIRE/video-look will be lost!

I’d recommend you do try and copy the file/mpg across to a DVD for best viewing, so you can hopefully watch it back on a trusty old 4:3 ratio CRT TV, as this really is how it should be viewed.

(Rant): Modern day flat screen TVs are not designed to show SD material at its best. And believe me, if we had high definition CRT TVs, you’d really be impressed by the quality of HD. The only reason we don’t (as they’d knock spots off any of their flat screen counterparts) is purely because they’re too bulky and thus can’t be hung off a wall – as some like to do with them – and not because a super duper widescreen CRT TV is worse than a flat screen of equivalent size…

The file's stored on "MEGAUPLOAD": Steptoe and Son - A Winters Tale (The Lost Steptoes) (Clip Restored - Dual Screen):

I'll be giving you all access to another restoration of mine, a bit later on, which is "The Ken Dodd Show"; "Steptoe and Son" Sketch from 1966, that I've lovingly restored & "VidFIRED" (given it back its "video-look"). It's NOT been seen this way (well, only by a handful of people) since its very first original broadcast, so should be a real treat - if I do say it myself!!!

Enjoy, and do please let me know what you think...

Last edited by The Pixel Surgeon on Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi
It was reported on the BBC website that in 200 one reel ie 15 minutes of AWT was handed in to them - like the Dasds Army episode, it still had the colour track, so original colour could simply be "retuned".

Upon contacting them some time around 2006 they eventually said that the second reel had been discovered as well as 'further tapes of similarity'. If you google it you will find the report somewhere online.

Since then I have heard, though through the grapevine, that Robbery With Violence exists too. I personally have not seen them and of course, like anything you read online, you must take your own asusmption of the facts.

Someone wil lhave them all on video somewhere, in glorious colour, we just need to find that so-and-so!

The BBC appears to be taking a second look at the restoration of both Steptoe and Son and Hancock’s Half Hour. It seems they, finally, want to do a proper job. However, by proper, I don’t think they mean any colour recovery. Although they’d almost certainly be contemplating restoring the video-look (otherwise known as VidFire) to the episodes that reside in their archives as TRs (Tele Recordings). If it goes ahead, I’m sure we’ll all hear much more about it, in due course...

I'd like to think, that they came across something on the internet/WWW, that spired them on...

[quote="The Pixel Surgeon"]The BBC appears to be taking a second look at the restoration of both Steptoe and Son and Hancock’s Half Hour. It seems they, finally, want to do a proper job. However, by proper, I don’t think they mean any colour recovery. Although they’d almost certainly be contemplating restoring the video-look (otherwise known as VidFire) to the episodes that reside in their archives as TRs (Tele Recordings). If it goes ahead, I’m sure we’ll all hear much more about it, in due course...
quote]

Amen to that!! I guess the question is, how many of us will hand ove rour hard earned cash to buy new restored versions, I for one would, but unless it has mass sales the BBC couldn't give a rats behind, let us not have the rediculous notion that they actually care about the artistic value of these things, they care about profit.

You are right about the colouring, they have assured me they have no plans whatsoever to do anything about it. In fairness, one colour episode only has little value to the BBC, they cant sell a 30 minute dvd and no money would be made from broadcasting it. If they had an entire series, then perhaps...